Tallahassee, FL : Feds speed up safety for self-driving cars as 3 crash in Chandler on Thursday, 29th September 2016
Federal auto safety regulators have opened up the fast lane for Google, Uber, Ford and other firms developing self-driving car technology.
Developed by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the long-awaited guidelines signaled to the industry that the government would take its role of providing safety oversight seriously. But officials also made it clear that makers of automated vehicles needn’t fear over-regulation.
“Automated vehicles have the potential to save thousands of lives, driving the single biggest leap in road safety that our country has ever taken,” said DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx. “This policy is an unprecedented step by the federal government to harness the benefits of transformative technology by providing a framework for how to do it safely.”
The policy outlines a 15-point Safety Assessment for the design and development of self-driving cars; calls for states to come up with uniform policies regarding autonomous cars; clarifies how current regulations can be interpreted to allow for greater flexibility in design; and identifies possible new regulations policymakers may consider in the future.
More than 35,000 people were killed on U.S. roadways last year, and 94 percent of those were caused by human error.
Still, there have been safety concerns over self-driving technology.
In May, a Florida man was killed when his Tesla in Autopilot mode slammed into a truck. Another Tesla crash in China recently came to light when the family of a man killed in an accident filed a lawsuit against the automaker. Tesla has insisted that its Autopilot is not at fault.
Closer to home, three of Google’s self-driving cars in Chandler were involved in August accidents, according to a monthly report from the company. Two of the accidents occurred while the cars were being manually driven. No injuries were reported.
The Google report stated that a driver ran a red light while a Google Lexus driver was attempting to make a left turn off Chandler Boulevard onto Beck Drive. In the second incident, a Google Lexus was rear-ended on Ray Road near McKemy Avenue while being manually driven. The third accident occurred when a Google Lexus in autonomous mode was stopped at a red light at Ray Road and Desert Breeze Road and rear-ended.
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Feds speed up safety for self-driving cars as 3 crash in Chandler